Integration of IR-Blasters with Alexa Smart Home

Question

My goal is to use Alexa Voice Service(AVS) to control TV,AC.. etc. through an IR blaster.

I have my own IoT application which can be used to on-board the said IR blaster and control it manually. The application supports other devices as well. In a previous implementation I have linked AVS with the application and it is now able to control switches,sockets and bulbs through voice.

When implementing for the blaster what I found was that this could be done by using the device category as "OTHER"(as there aren't a category for blasters) and using Alexa.ModeController Interface? I have to create separate modes for each action of the remote(for AC it would be cool mode, fan mode.. etc.) and include each possible parameter values(1,2,3,4) under that action? Problem with this approach is that the implementation is complex and also device specific i.e. I have to do separate implementations for TV and AC.

Is there a better way to achieve this?

Answer 1

Can you list exactly what actions you want?

ModeController is a primitive one, so it allows defining basically anything, but yes, instance ids must match. Other primitives are the Range Controller and the Toggle Controller. All of them use instance ids for the cases if you have multiple capabilities on the same controller.

There a lot of specific controllers. For example to control AC, you can use the Alexa.ThermostatController